Who We Are

We are a grassroots organization of concerned individuals who have joined forces to try to make Jewish education affordable for every family that wishes to send its children to a Jewish day school in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

Mordechai Ben-Dat was the editor of The Canadian Jewish News for 18 and a half years.

David W. Brown is a Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Life Underwriter, Registered Health Underwriter, and a Chartered Financial Consultant. David is a partner in the firm of Al G. Brown & Associates, an independent financial and estate planning firm. He was awarded the Toronto Jewish Congress Leadership Development Award in 1990 and the professional Advisory Committee’s Award of Excellence by the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto. David has served in many leadership positions in voluntary and charitable organizations over the past 25 years.

Sara Dobner is a Senior Policy Advisor with the Ontario Government. As an Israeli-Canadian, she is the chair of the Israeli Identity Program, Schwartz/Reisman Centre. She has volunteered at the UJA Federation and Limmud 2015, and she is a CJN advisory board member. Previously, she was a board member of TanenbaumCHAT and Kachol Lavan Centre. Sara is a member of Congregation Darchei Noam. Married to Michael, she is the mother of two CHAT graduates.

Zac Kaye has worked in the Jewish community for over 45 years, mostly with Hillel around the world. He is currently the Interim Executive Director at Cornell Hillel. Zac retired as the founding director of Hillel of Greater Toronto in 2013, and then he became the Interim Executive Director of Hillel in Minneapolis. Zac has a Masters in Jewish education from Brandeis University’s Hornstein program, and he studied education at Manchester University, England. Married to Suzanne, they have 4 children and 8 grandchildren.

Rabbi Jay Kelman CPA, CA is the founding Director of Torah in Motion and teaches Jewish Law and Rabbinics at the Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto (CHAT). His monthly column Money Matters is published in the Canadian Jewish News. Rabbi Kelman worked for ten years as a Chartered Accountant and served for nine years as Rabbi of Beth Jacob Congregation. He and his wife Ilana are the proud parents of six children.

Jennifer Paton Smith is a technical writer. Although born in Toronto, she lived in Israel for 12 years, where she met her husband, Sander, and where their son was born. She is a member of First Narayever Congregation. She was a board member of Kehillat Tiferet Shalom (Ramat Aviv) and a founding member of Kehillat Veahavta (Zichron Ya’acov). Jennifer is a proud day-school graduate and parent.

Dr. Howard Price is a gastroenterologist married to Leah, with two wonderful children and son-in-law and two amazing grandchildren. Previously he has volunteered at UJA Federation, JNF, Hillel, Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue, DARA, and Ve’ahavta. Currently he volunteers at UJA Federation, JNF, CIJA, Beth Tikvah Synagogue, and Herzog Hospital.

Jeffrey Stutz is a specialist in public policy. He is a member of Congregation Beth Haminyan and volunteers with UJA Federation. Married to Shirley, he is the father of three day-school graduates.